A Highway Encounter
by LillyAngel
Summary: Preslash, Lyle/Luke. Micah convinces Lyle to drive him across the country. On the way, they pick up Luke, and he and Lyle reach common ground despite their differences.


A/N: Written for speecygeekgirl for the Spring Exchange assignment on heroes_exchange. Spoilers for anything up to and including Fugitives.

A Highway Encounter

Lyle was having a perfectly normal day for once. No super powered sister, no creepy agents watching their house. He was all alone, just him and his Gameboy. Unfortunately, the doorbell rang. It would seem fate would once again intervene to ruin his day.

"You're Lyle Bennet, right?" the kid outside the door asked.

Lyle looked confused. "Yeah, who are you?"

The kid smiled. "My name's Micah. I'm here to talk to you."

Lyle's confusion increased. "You're not with the government, are you?"

Micah shook his head. "No, I'm here to ask you for help. I need you to help me rescue other people with powers."

"Woah, hold on a second. Me? I'm not special or anything, I don't have any powers!"

Micah nodded. "That may be true, but you're Claire's brother. And most importantly, you have a car."

"It's my mom's car," Lyle protested. 'And I'm grounded with no license."

"That's not a big deal," Micah said, producing a card from his pocket. Upon further inspection, Lyle realized that it must be a fake license. He looked wearily at Micah.

"What am I going to tell my mom?" he asked, and in return Micah just smiled.

An hour and the two of them were on the open highway. Lyle had hastily written a letter to his mother, explaining that he had to go help Claire, and that it was an emergency. Not that he thought his mother would believe that, but it was worth a shot.

"So where are we heading?" he asked Micah, who was sitting beside him in the passenger seat.

"Washington D.C."

Lyle turned his head towards Micah sharply. "Washington? But that's a couple of days drive, at least! I didn't think that I would be gone for that long."

"Don't be so dramatic. Think of it as helping the greater good. Besides, your mom probably won't be back for a while, if it makes you feel better."

Lyle scoffed. "Like my mother's going to care about the greater good." They kept on driving in relative silence for some time, stopping only once at a gas station to fill up and take care of other necessities. The monotony of the drive was broken as they approached a seemingly normal hitchhiker further up along the road.

"Wait, we have to pull over!" Micah shouted, pointing to the boy up ahead.

"Are you kidding? No way! He could be an axe murderer for all we know."

Micah rolled his eyes. "No he isn't. Trust me, just pull over." Lyle sighed, shaking his head in disbelief of what he was doing, as he pulled the car over to the shoulder.

Micah stuck his head out of the window and smiled at the boy outside. "Hey there, Luke."

The boy looked taken aback. "How do you know my name? Are you with them?" he asked, raising his hand as though to attack.

"No, we're not." Micah smiled and stuck his hand out of the window. "I'm Rebel, but you can call me Micah. Nice to meet you."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "You're Rebel? I thought you would have been a little older. Who's the other guy?"

"This is Lyle. We're on our way to find more people like us in Washington." Micah popped open the back door. "Now, get in the car. We really don't have that much time." Luke shrugged and got in. Lyle sighed at this, and turned back onto the highway. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, he caught Luke smirking at him.

"What are you smirking at?"

"Oh nothing. Just shaking my head at the irony of the situation. I'm finally in an enclosed space with a hot guy and there's a child with us." Luke said. Lyle raised an eyebrow, shocked, and looked over to Micah, who appeared to be ignoring the boy in the back. Lyle decided to do the same, and with a quick glance in the rear-view mirror to Luke, he turned his eyes back onto the road in front of him.

Days passed as the trio moved their way across the country. The mood in the car was a rather tense one. Lyle was still weary of Luke, who seemed to take a particular interest in him from the day that they met. Lyle found it quite unsettling, marvelling at Micah's ability to ignore the boy's offhand comments.

"So Luke, how did you wind up in California?" Micah asked, peering back curiously at the boy in question.

"I was traveling with this guy, but then he ditched me and I hitchhiked until I wound up here."

"Isn't hitchhiking supposed to be dangerous?" Lyle asked, rather naively.

Luke smirked. "I can take care of myself. Anyways, what do you care about my safety? It's not like you know me or anything. Unless, of course, you want to." He raised an eyebrow suggestively at these words.

Lyle blushed slightly, and refused to meet Luke's eyes, or to dignify his question with a response.

"So tell me something, Micah. How is it that you knew my name when you met me on the highway?" Luke asked, focusing on Micah now, much to Lyle's relief.

"I went into the government's data files and came across your name."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Are you actually telling me that you hacked into the government's files? What are you, 10 years old? There's no way you could have done that unless you were some kind of genius!" At this, Micah just smiled.

Luke narrowed his eyes. "You've got some sort of power too?" Micah nodded, and Luke said no more.

He stayed surprisingly quiet until they reached the next rest stop.

As they pulled into the gas station, Luke unbuckled his seat belt and got ready to leave the car.

"Where are you going?" Lyle asked.

Luke grinned. "To get some food. Want something?"

"I'll get a bag of chips," Micah said, turning excitedly to face Luke.

"Sure thing. Anything for you, Lyle?"

Lyle frowned. "No thanks."

Luke shrugged. "Suit yourself." He slammed the door shut and walked into the store.

"I'll be back in a minute," Micah said, and he too went into the store. Lyle sighed, gripped the steering wheel and dropped his head down. How had he gotten himself into this mess? He continued with this line of thought until the passenger door opened. Glancing over, he saw Luke sitting beside him, munching on some form of candy bar.

"I hope you paid for that," commented Lyle offhandedly.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Of course I paid for it. Do you think I'm an idiot? I already have the government on my tail; it wouldn't do any good to have the cops chasing after me as well." Lyle felt slightly guilty at the comment.

"So how did you get involved in all of this?" Luke asked, peering at Lyle.

"My sister has powers. The government came for her a couple of days ago. My mom went to go talk to my dad, because he works for the government, so I was home alone. When Micah came, I just figured I could help with something for once."

Luke blinked. "Wow, so I guess your dad's not around much if he's out catching people."

Lyle shrugged. "No, not really. When he is home, he's always with Claire. He doesn't really pay much attention to me."

"My dad wasn't around much either, thankfully. He took off a couple of years ago. I haven't seen him since. I'm glad though, he wasn't much of a dad while he was around." He smiled wryly. There was a minute of silence as both Luke and Lyle avoided meeting each other's eyes.

"I guess we have something in common," Luke said, smiling a true smile. Lyle couldn't help but smile back, feeling that something between them had changed; that they had somehow became closer with their short conversation.

As the time went by, Lyle and Luke began to talk more. The awkwardness present in their former conversations was gone, and they found themselves opening up to each other more. They both figured out that something between them had changed, and perhaps Micah felt it too. The time seemed to pass more quickly, and before the three of them knew it, they had arrived in Washington D.C. Lyle drove up and down the busy streets of the capital, wondering what they were going to do now.

"Pull over here." Micah pointed to a back alley just off of the street. All three of them got out of the car and looked at each other.

"I have somewhere I need to be," Micah said mysteriously. "Thanks for the ride, Lyle, and it was nice to meet you Luke. Hopefully we'll meet again when this is all over."

"See you around," Luke said, and Lyle waved to him. Micah smiled, turned around, and walked away.

The two of them stood there beside the car as they watched Micah disappear into the crowds of the capital. For a couple of minutes, neither of them moved.

"So where will you go now?" Lyle asked finally, meeting Luke's eyes.

Luke shrugged rather dejectedly. "I don't really know. I don't think I could go back home."

Lyle smiled as an idea came to him. "Fancy a drive back to Costa Verde with me?"

"You're on."


End file.
